
Text -- Ecclesiastes 12:14 (NET)




Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics



collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley: Ecc 12:14 - -- All men must give an account to God of all their works, and this alone will enable them to do that with joy.
All men must give an account to God of all their works, and this alone will enable them to do that with joy.

Not only outward and visible actions, but even inward and secret thoughts.
JFB -> Ecc 12:14
JFB: Ecc 12:14 - -- The future judgment is the test of what is "vanity," what solid, as regards the chief good, the grand subject of the book.
The future judgment is the test of what is "vanity," what solid, as regards the chief good, the grand subject of the book.
Clarke -> Ecc 12:14
Clarke: Ecc 12:14 - -- For God shall bring every work into judgment - This is the reason why we should "fear God and keep his commandments.
1. Because th...
For God shall bring every work into judgment - This is the reason why we should "fear God and keep his commandments.
1. Because there will be a day of judgment
2. Every soul of man shall stand at that bar
3. God, the infinitely wise, the heart-searching God, will be judge
4. He will bring to light every secret thing - all that has been done since the creation, by all men; whether forgotten or registered; whether done in secret or in public
5. All the works of the godly, as well as all the works of the wicked, shall be judged in that day; the good which the godly strove to conceal, as well as the evil which the wicked endeavored to hide
This, then, will be the conclusion of the whole mortal story. And although in this world all is vanity; yet there, "vanities will be vain no more."Every thing whether good or evil, will have its own proper stable, eternal result. O God! prepare the reader to give up his accounts with joy in that day! Amen
Masoretic Note
Number of verses, 222
Middle verse, Ecc 6:10
Sections, 4
The Arabic subjoins this colophon: - "Praise be to God for ever and ever!
"By the assistance of the Most High God this book of Ecclesiastes, which is vanity of vanities, written by Solomon the son of David who reigned over the children of Israel, is completed.
The Syriac has, "The end of the book of Koheleth.
There are others, but they are of no importance.
Defender -> Ecc 12:14
TSK -> Ecc 12:14
TSK: Ecc 12:14 - -- Ecc 11:9; Psa 96:13; Mat 12:36, 25:31-46; Luk 12:1, Luk 12:2; Joh 5:29; Act 17:30, Act 17:31; Rom 2:16, Rom 14:10-12; 1Co 4:5; 2Co 5:10; Rev 20:11-15

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Ecc 12:8-14
Barnes: Ecc 12:8-14 - -- This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves ...
This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves therefore to make the book more intelligible and more acceptable.
Here, as in the beginning of the book Ecc 1:1-2, the Preacher speaks of himself Ecc 12:8-10 in the third person. He first repeats Ecc 12:8 the mournful, perplexing theme with which his musings began Ecc 1:2; and then states the encouraging practical conclusion Ecc 12:13-14 to which they have led him. It has been pointed out that the Epilogue assumes the identity of the Preacher with the writer of the Book of Proverbs.
literally, Words of wise men are as goads, and as nails driven in (by) masters of assemblies; they are given from one shepherd: "goads,"because they rouse the hearer and impel him to right actions; "nails"(perhaps tent-spikes), because they remain fixed in the memory: "masters of assemblies"are simply "teachers"or "preachers"(see Ecc 1:1 note), instructors of such assemblies as Wisdom addresses Pro 1:20.
One shepherd - i. e., God, who is the supreme Giver of wisdom Pro 2:6, and the chief Shepherd Jer 23:1-4. Compare 1Co 2:12-13.
By these - i. e., "By the words of wise men."
Books - Rather, "Writings."Probably the proverbs current in the Preacher’ s age, including, though not especially indicating, his own.
The Preacher protests against the folly of protracted, unprofitable, meditation.
literally, "The conclusion of the discourse"(or "word,"= words, Ecc 1:1), "the whole, let us hear."
The whole duty of man - Rather, the whole man. To revere God and to obey Him is the whole man, constitutes man’ s whole being; that only is conceded to Man; all other things, as this book teaches again and again, are dependent on a Higher Incomprehensible Being.
Judgment with - Rather, judgment (which shall be held) upon etc.: i. e., an appointed judgment which shall take place in another world, as distinct from that retribution which frequently follows man’ s actions in the course of this world, and which is too imperfect (compare Ecc 2:15; Ecc 4:1; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 9:2, ...) to be described by these expressions. He that is fully convinced that there is no solid happiness to be found in this world, and that there is a world to come wherein God will adjudge people to happiness or misery respectively, as they have made their choice and acted here, must necessarily subscribe to the truth of Solomon’ s conclusion, that true religion is the only way to true happiness.
\brdrb \brdrs \brdrw30 \brsp20
Poole -> Ecc 12:14
Poole: Ecc 12:14 - -- For God shall bring every work into judgment: this is added either,
1. As a reason of what he last said,
this is the whole of man because all men ...
For God shall bring every work into judgment: this is added either,
1. As a reason of what he last said,
this is the whole of man because all men must give an account to God of all their works, and this alone will enable them to do that with joy, and not with grief. Or,
2. As another argument to press the foregoing exhortation, Fear God, and keep his commandments, for you must be called to judgment about it, &c.
With every secret thing not only outward and visible actions, but even inward and secret thoughts.
Haydock -> Ecc 12:14
Haydock: Ecc 12:14 - -- Error. Or hidden and secret things. (Challoner) ---
Hebrew, "with every secret thing," (Protestants; Haydock) "every inadvertency." (Septuagint; ...
Error. Or hidden and secret things. (Challoner) ---
Hebrew, "with every secret thing," (Protestants; Haydock) "every inadvertency." (Septuagint; Symmachus) (Calmet)
Gill -> Ecc 12:14
Gill: Ecc 12:14 - -- For God shall bring every work into judgment,.... Not in this life, but in the day of the great judgment, as the Targum explains it; that is, whatever...
For God shall bring every work into judgment,.... Not in this life, but in the day of the great judgment, as the Targum explains it; that is, whatever has been done by men, from the beginning of the world, or will be to the end; all being observed and taken notice of by the omniscient God, who has registered them in the book of his remembrance, and, being Judge, will be able to bring them all into account at that awful day: which is here given as a reason why men should fear God, and keep his commandments;
with every secret thing; that has been committed in secret by men, and is unknown to others, even every secret thought of the heart; see 1Co 4:5; or, "with every secret" or "hidden man" w; whose works are hidden from men, and are not known to be what, they are, and who thought to hide themselves from, God; but these, with their works, shall be brought into open court in judgment;
whether it be good, or whether it be evil: it shall then be examined according to the rule of the word, and be judged, and declared to be what it truly is, good or evil; and so be either rewarded in a way of grace, or punished: or, "whether the man, the hidden man, be good or evil" x, so Alshech; all mankind, everyone, will he bring into judgment, whether he be good or evil. This is the last end of all things, and in which every man will be concerned. This shows, as well as many other things in this book. Solomon's belief of a future state and judgment; and that there is nothing in it to encourage the epicure and atheist: which being observed by the ancient Jews, they readily admitted it into the canon of Scripture.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Ecc 12:1-14
TSK Synopsis: Ecc 12:1-14 - --1 The Creator is to be remembered in due time.8 The preacher's care to edify.13 The fear of God is the chief antidote of vanity.
MHCC -> Ecc 12:8-14
MHCC: Ecc 12:8-14 - --Solomon repeats his text, VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY. These are the words of one that could speak by dear-bought experience of the vanity of th...
Matthew Henry -> Ecc 12:13-14
Matthew Henry: Ecc 12:13-14 - -- The great enquiry which Solomon prosecutes in this book is, What is that good which the sons of men should do? Ecc 2:3. What is the true way to tr...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Ecc 12:14
Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 12:14 - --
As we render zeh kol -haadam as expressive of the same obligation lying on all men without exception, this verse appropriately follows: "For God sh...
Constable -> Ecc 11:7--Sos 1:1; Ecc 12:8-14
Constable: Ecc 11:7--Sos 1:1 - --IV. THE WAY OF WISDOM 11:7--12:14
In 1:12-6:9, Solomon demonstrated that all work is ultimately futile for two r...
